Category: Online Journal

How to Respond When Students Use Hate SpeechSome activities for creating a healthy classroom culture by Richard Curwin “Sticks and stones will break my bones—but words will really hurt me.” I was playing with my 3-year-old granddaughter and called her a silly goose. She freaked out—crying, yelling, and telling me she hated me. It took a[…]

William Perry & Larry K. Brendtro This story began at Starr Commonwealth, a residential school for troubled youth in Michigan. Larry Brendtro was successor to school’s founder Floyd Starr who was first to express the well-known motto, “There is no such thing as a bad boy.” It was there that Brendtro would meet Bill Perry—co-author[…]

by Mark Freado Fourteen-year-old Angelique sat in the dining room of her group home explaining to her favorite staff member, Ms. G, the fight that happened at school that day. This incident resulted in Angelique’s one-day suspension from school to be imposed the following day, and she was not allowed to attend the group[…]

by Richard Curwin When I was a new teacher in middle school several centuries ago, I occasionally said things to students that I later regretted. In the last few years, I have witnessed or heard teachers say additional regretful things to students. Recently, I asked students in my graduate courses (all practicing teachers) if they[…]

by Howard Bath Normal is boring. I came across this “thought for the week” in a local bar and coffee shop. It captures what we all think about being “normal.” Our society values the original, the one-of-a kind, the exceptional, the distinctive, and the one who stands out from the crowd. “Normal” is more than[…]

David R. Cross, Ph.D. One of the campers who attended our summer camp, The Hope Connection, in the early 2000s was a lovely thirteen-year-old who had been adopted from an institution in Eastern Europe. She had been a sexual pet for the workers there and bore the deep emotional scars of chronic maltreatment. During the[…]

by Signe Whitson Gary is a fourth-grade student. Whenever his teacher, Mrs. Blackburn, asks him to do something in class, he readily agrees to do it but then finds ways to avoid making good on his word. One day, Mrs. Blackburn asked Gary to go to the bookshelf at the back of the classroom and[…]

Susan Jones Karen was a student from the alternative middle school who stood out to me. There was just something about her that indicated she was an adolescent in pain. She displayed a tough exterior as she walked, and sometimes ran, in the hallways. She often engaged in verbal and physical conflicts with others. I[…]